There are many computer systems that implement commercial transactions or apply commercial models to internal transactions. Examples of such systems include the "KeyKOS Space Bank", a computer system that allocates a finite supply of memory pages among programs running on the computer system, and the "Fractal Reserve Bank", which handles transfers of fractional reserves (i.e., money) between bank accounts. One characteristic of the aforementioned systems is the need to represent the idea of exclusivity of rights to the goods being traded or allocated. For example, in the KeyKOS Space Bank, where the resource being allocated is a finite supply of memory pages, allocating all of the pages to one process necessarily means that all other page requests must be denied.
This notion of exclusivity of rights inheres to all types of tangible (as opposed to intellectual) property, the physical possession of which excludes another from simultaneous possession of the same property. However, exclusivity is not natural in computer systems, where any number of pointers addressing a particular object can be freely manufactured, essentially conferring universal access to and transfer of rights. The KeyKOS Space Bank and Fractal Reserve systems successfully provided a working computer representation of exclusive rights by providing those rights only in relation to the specific goods being transferred in the respective systems. Thus, the KeyKOS Space Bank provided exclusive, transferrable rights to pages of memory and the Fractal Reserve Bank provided exclusivity with respect to the right to money represented in the computer.
While specific exclusivity is useful in certain contexts, with the increased use of networked computers for commercial transactions (e.g., as automated clearing houses for electronic funds transfers), there exists a need for computer-implemented protocols that permit the generic transfer of exclusive rights (i.e., exclusivity that is not specific to the objects being transferred). For example, generic exclusivity is useful in an escrow situation, where two parties wish to effect a mutual exchange of one type of good for another through a mutually trusted third party, also called an escrow agent. In such a situation, the escrow agent does not need to be aware of the types of all possible goods that could be involved in possible transfers. Rather, the escrow agent simply needs to know how to facilitate the secure transfer of whatever goods the parties agreed to transfer. Consequently, there is a need for a computer system and method that provides for the generic transfer of exclusive rights to goods represented therein.